


Consolation

by pleasantly



Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Character Death, Character Turned Into a Ghost, Childhood, M/M, Nostalgia, Ouija, Paranormal, Racist Language, Talking To Dead People
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-19
Updated: 2019-01-19
Packaged: 2019-10-12 23:29:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,490
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17476994
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pleasantly/pseuds/pleasantly
Summary: John Laurens is my best friend, ever since I immigrated into the United States, I never had a better friend than John. Never in all my days would I believe he would be stripped from my fingers...like that. I never realised how empty my space felt without him.Till I felt the empty space fill up again, overwhelmingly fast at that.





	Consolation

"I found you, Alex!" John laughed as he found me, I grinned up at him as I tried to stumble out of the bush I had been hiding in. He grabbed my hand to pull me out and I felt a sharp pain in my leg, I yelped at him to let go, feeling my eyes water as I hobbled my leg out, it had snagged on a branch, and now I've ended up with a big cut in my leg. "Uh...uhm...mom!" John yelled, his curly hair flailing around as he ran to his house, quite the run away, leaving me to whimper as my leg pulsated and bled. 

Eleanor rushed with her son to me, with my poor vision I could barely see them from the distance, all I knew was John was panicked and Eleanor was hitching her skirt up as she ran. "Alex! He...He hurt his leg!" John whined as they got closer. "Oh my, oh you poor boy" Eleanor gasped as she arrived at the scene. She scooped me up into her arms, a maternal grasp I was glad to feel, although my pulsating leg distracted me. She rushed me to the home, trying not to trip over the material of her skirt, I could feel John holding onto my dangling hand.

"You're going to be okay, Alex, you're in really good hands" John murmured as Eleanor set me down on one of the kitchen's wooden stools. "Amazing...I learned that word...you can say in amazing hands..." I smiled tiredly, watching Eleanor return with a wet rag and a basin of water. "You're quite clever, aren't you, Alexander" She smiled kindly, "Maybe a new word you could learn is intelligent, Alexander, and you could learn the word patient, John" She added, John bouncing on the balls of his feet, waiting for me to be okay.

I kept my eyes closed for the duration of cleaning the cut, maybe I even dozed off, because next thing I knew was I was on a more comfortable chair, a blanket tossed over me and John was asleep on the other side of the room, also with a blanket tossed over him. His mop of hair was frizzy now, I knew Eleanor would be annoyed over it, once he got mud in it...I made sure to leave before she found out. He snored lightly, a small line of drool falling from his lips...it kept falling and retreating with each breath, just about to touch the chair arm each time.

I stood from the chair, looking down at my leg, wrapped in tissue to soak up the blood, and held with some kind of adhesive, it was very makeshift...and it did its job. I hobbled over to John, lightly poking his face. "Wake up...John...Wake up" I whispered in his ear, it was getting dark out, but I didn't want to go home. Mom was sick...really sick. She said to stay out of the house, that I'd get sick...James ran away, I think it was to work as a carpenter. He told me he'd come home, he was getting money to help mom, but it's almost been a month, I hope he gets paid soon. 

"Jooooohn" I whispered, poking him again. "Go 'way momma" He muttered, I sniggered, 'Momma'. "Johnnnn, it's the Britishhhh" I whispered, "They brought teaaaa" I whispered. I saw his eyes begin to open and I ran to grab my blanket, draping it over myself. "I'm for your teaaaaa, Jooooohn" I 'wooed', watching John through the gaps of the knitting. John was still sleepy but soon his eyes opened, through the light, and he let out a gasp. "A ghost!" He grinned. "Yesssss, I'm the ghost of...of...uhh...Henry!" I waved my arms under the blanket and I saw John run to grab some kind of a 'weapon', it was a knitting needle. "I'll get Hercules Mulligan on you, Henry!" John laughed, jumping up on the chair, waving the knitting needle in my direction.

Hercules was a kid who lived down the road from John, he was big and tall, and he fixes almost anything with some thread and a sewing needle. He was also part Irish...not like that's important. He had a friend who was French, his name is really long...like...really long; Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette...we call him Lafayette. I knew some French, when we play 'Wars', Lafayette and I always get to be like spies, because we can discuss without Hercules or John knowing.

"Boys!" Eleanor yelled, and we both dropped our items. We ran to the kitchen, ready to seat ourselves. "Supp- Oh my, would you look at the state of your hair, John!"  
I told you she would be annoyed.

His hair stuck out in each and every direction, he laughed it off, claiming I'd lose a finger if I stuck my hand in his hair. It was all fun and games...

"You look like one of those monkeys out on the fields" Eleanor muttered disdainfully under her breath and John's laughing came to an abrupt stop. "Maybe there'll be an invention and we can have your hair straight and silky" She added, turning to return to preparing supper. "You've such beautiful hair, Alexander, wouldn't you agree John?" She taunted, John simply grumbled, using his hands to try pat his hair down, to no avail. We ate supper in silence.

We were around eight then. Young, naive and trying our best to please our parents.

We were thirteen when I ran to his house, my waistcoat barely holding onto my arms. My eyes watered against the flowing wind and my tears. I could feel the ends of my trousers dirtying up against the long grass of the unkempt pathways. I was spluttering as I ran to his house, my stomach was churning, I knew I was going to vomit across the wet grass.

My mother's vomit had lined the floorboards. Her eyes were wide, yellow...and dead. She was lying in a pool of her own vomit and blood. I felt sick. I just knew I didn't want to see it.

I felt myself pounding on the door of the Laurens household, tears rushing down my face, It felt like my insides were turning inside-out, I needed to vomit, I needed to cry, I needed comfort. I kept pounding on the door when Eleanor opened the door with a hurried expression, possibly about to yell at whoever she thought was banging on her door. She was stunned as I fell into her body, sobbing uncontrollably, she fell to her knees, and I heard quiet footsteps behind her. "Mom? Alex?" John asked in confusion, "Alexander?" I heard the voice of Hercules Mulligan. "Alexander?" I heard Lafayette say, though it sounded more like "Aah-lex-aun-der". I looked over her shoulder, all of them wide eye as I could barely see past their figures, my vision was blurred with tears. 

"I think I'm gonna be sick" I muttered before I carefully exited the house once again, leaning over my stomach, vomiting into the grass next to the door. Every time I thought I stopped, I kept vomiting, till I was spluttering out spit. "Uh...I'm sorry Mrs Laurens...I'll-I'll clean it or...I don't know, I'll clean it" I mumbled through soft sobs. Eleanor simply held her arms out once again, and I found myself falling into them, over her shoulder, the three boys looking on with concern and confusion.   
I remember back when I laughed at John saying 'momma' in his sleep, I found myself saying it consciously. "My momma...she died, she...she threw up, everywhere-" I sniffled "and blood, blood and puked everywhere, she won't wake up, Mrs Laurens, she won't w-wake up!" I sobbed into her shoulder, I felt myself collapsing and she held me up. "Muh-my momma, she's dead, she's really dead!" I cried and I felt the embrace of multiple arms, the three boys had found room to come in. I had never been so thankful for one's embrace before.

I stayed in the Laurens household for a while, I didn't really eat, despite the constant pressure of Eleanor to eat even a small slice of bread. I declined each time. John tried to play tag and hide-and-seek, I told him we were too old for that now. Hercules helped fix any old clothes I had transported from my house after I was forced to return...say goodbye. Lafayette spoke to me, words of comfort, in his native language, I couldn't look at him as he spoke. I felt empty, my brother and father ditched me and my mother was gone, I miss her greatly, I never knew how much death hurt, I never knew it could cause me to think intently of my every movement. Of everyone else's every movement.


End file.
